THE Cheltenham Festival crowd got a thrilling insight into Twenty20 cricket as Gloucestershire beat Essex in a rain-reduced Pro40 match.

With the 40-over competition due to be scrapped in favour of the more fashionable shorter format of the game from next season, the College Ground is set to host Twenty20 cricket for the first time.

And it got an early taste of what is to come as rain delayed the start on Sunday, reducing the match to 20 overs per side before another shower made it 18 overs each, with Will Porterfield leading the Gladiators to a dramatic six-wicket win.

The opening batsman hit 97 not out off 53 balls, including 12 fours and three sixes, on his return from international duty with Ireland as Gloucestershire chased down a daunting target of 192 with three balls to spare.

A home win looked unlikely at one stage as Dutch International Ryan ten Doeschate hit five fours and six maximums on his way to 88 off 43 balls to give the Eagles lift-off.

He was aided by Grant Flower, brother of England team director, Andy, who scored an unbeaten 34 off 18 balls.

Gloucestershire’s bowlers toiled as the wickets were shared around between Steve Kirby (2-45), Richard Dawson (1-26), Chris Taylor (1-13) and David Brown (1-36).

Kadeer Ali (13) shared 34 with Porterfield for the first wicket before Chris Wright removed him and skipper Alex Gidman (4) in quick succession.

New Zealander James Franklin then struck 60 off 30 balls, including three sixes, in a match-winning partnership of 135 with Porterfield to swing the game Gloucestershire’s way.

Hamish Marshall (4) didn’t stick around long before Taylor struck the winning four.

It was a timely boost for Gloucestershire after their first Pro40 game against Worcestershire Royals was abandoned when they looked in a good position.

Kadeer Ali struck an unbeaten 100 as they reached 217-3 off 32.3 overs before the rain came. Franklin had struck 47, while Marshall was going well on 38 not out off 23 balls.